


orchid mantis

by atlasarchivist



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-14 10:30:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16038644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atlasarchivist/pseuds/atlasarchivist
Summary: morinth arrives on the citadel, a few months after fleeing omega. unlike sine qua non, this is a 'verse in which samara still lives.





	orchid mantis

She sat stock still, waiting and wanting, adrenaline on high as the heady bass cut deep into bone. A drink in hand, she wondered if she would find solace this night, if she would find one that would silence the pacing beast locked deep in the recesses of her mind. Sharp teeth and a red maw it had, made for shredding memory and knowing all the pitiable prey had once been. Icy blue eyes were lazy whilst the smells pervaded her space, and it came to her then -  _she was not here_ , she was not in the game as wholly as she had once been.

Her escape from Omega had been quiet and she had licked several wounds to her pride after Mother had found her again. The girl,  _Nef_ , perhaps had been a mistake. _Too_  close,  _too_  obvious and Morinth chided that hunger and brazen affair that had nearly cost all. Contemplation of her inherent nature was sour and wrong, a thought not worth having and yet - it stayed, it swam in the dark reaches and sought to move to the forefront.

She had gone to ground, the black places where only the forgotten tread but even there, long away from city centers and a wide open hunting ground were not safe from the grand machines that slowly encroached the galactic edge. So she had come here, and perhaps it had been unwise, but the Citadel was both the best and worse place she could have chosen.

Shockingly, in her short days of arrival, news of her fated meeting with lauded Commander had not spread. Neither had the Justicars risen up to hunt her down. No call, no warning but the fear that sat under a guise of normal seemed to be an answer. No one cared. Not while Earth was burning. Not while the war was coming. Not while shaky images of pure unrestrained carnage dominated every news outlet and feed.

She spun a long glass between her fingers and hissed when she shifted wrong at the hips. She drew no eye this night - for the best, as it were - she was in no mood to hunt. So she stood, paid her tab with a gentle hum that did not carry over the loud and pulsing sounds. It all seemed so desperate and foolish. Pithy thoughts, then, she knew it was time to run but she could not fathom to where.

A hand then, on her waist and a smile upon scarred lips beside her cheek. It spoke soft tones and the nightmare within purred in satisfaction. Prey so rarely came to her, so rarely sought the ecstasy of her destruction. Her own smile came, a touch too wide and full of straight teeth. The beast purred in delight and the three left together. By morning one would remain and the cycle would begin again. 

Perhaps it had been good to come here, she thought, perhaps the center of all things was better than hiding in places where one would naturally hide. She could smell him - a refugee, a desperate man without home or family and a memory full of garbled screaming, red lights and fire spread out beyond the horizon. Such things he no longer cared to remember, but by morning she would recall them in his place. An effigy of memory that she needed as he did oblivion.

Here perhaps, at the end of existence, she could thrive. 


End file.
